I am also an educator, teaching at a R1 university as a research active professor. Last year at this time, I was one of a select group told that I was teaching in person whether I liked it or not (I didn’t) and managed to make it to the other end of that experience intact thanks to sparse attendance and an enormous room to teach in. I have very complicated feelings about that experience: it left me with a very big grudge against the admin, but I also realized that in-person education is truly best for the students. That being said, CN‘s letter struck a couple of nerves that I have to let loose on:
I have a take on this from a slightly different POV. My wife & I have 2 young children in daycare. A week ago, the older one was found to be exposed to COVID by his teacher, who took a regular and precautionary at-home test that night (she was/is asymptomatic). We live in PA (Philly burbs), and per the Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL), his whole classroom had to be shut down and everyone quarantined for 5 days. Yesterday (Sunday), I gave him a precautionary (he’s asymptomatic) home test which came back positive. We informed his daycare, who thanked us for the extra step, and reiterated new guidelines for return to daycare from OCDEL – specifically, he needs to have a negative test along with a signature from a Dr or CNP certifying it. We call his healthcare provider today to set up what will hopefully be a negative test later this week. Welp, they don’t do that (and this is the preeminent childrens’ healthcare provider in the region). They just say to quarantine for 10 days from symptoms or positive test. Why 10 days when OCDEL is 5 days? Reasons.
A lot of things happened (including me catching COVID-19 and thus spending the past week binging Frasier). Here are some of the things (besides me still not being able to taste my Häagen-Dazs).
Gotta Stay Folksy, Folks
Even with multiple criminal charges hanging over his head, Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) announced on Monday that he’s running for another term.
The GOP lawmaker announced this while sitting in the same pickup truck where he had filmed himself in October announcing his impending indictment.
(Jeff Fortenberry YouTube channel)
Fortenberry’s charges include lying to the FBI about his alleged ties to a foreign campaign contribution scheme.
He’s pleaded not guilty and is set to appear at a hearing today.
Biden To Urge Filibuster Changes For Voting Rights
The President will use his speech today in Atlanta, Georgia to press Democratic senators to tweak the rules of the notorious filibuster so that they can pass crucial voting rights bills without GOP obstruction. Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), famously, remain holdouts, though they support the underlying voting rights legislation.
This is the first time Biden will use his bully pulpit for a full-throated endorsement of filibuster reform. He signaled support for similar filibuster rule changes last October and again in December but declined to fully wade into the Senate Democrats’ debate over the issue.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who’s hellbent on bullying Democrats into keeping the filibuster exactly the way it is for obvious reasons, is holding a press conference of his own on the subject with Senate Rules Committee ranking member Roy Blunt (R-CO) today.
Frustrated Voting Rights Groups Won’t Show Up At Biden Speech
Some of Georgia’s top voting and civil rights groups are too fed up with Biden’s approach to filibuster reform — and the voting rights legislation that might come with it — to attend the President’s speech today. The advocates want Biden to provide an actual plan to get bills like John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the Freedom to Vote Act.
“We have been screaming, we have been yelling, we have been talking about this for over a year,” a co-founder of Black Voters Matter told NPR.
Leading voting rights activist Stacey Abrams won’t be there either, though that’s because of a scheduling conflict, according to the New York Times. She tweeted a welcome to Biden last night.
RonJohn Weaponizes Christmas Parade Attack In New Ads
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), who has broken his pledge to not run for reelection, put out a couple of new campaign ads yesterday pushing conservatives’ tried-and-true “soft on crime” talking point in which he pointed to the deadly Waukesha Christmas Parade to claim that “Democrat policies have been disastrous for America.”
We’re About To Shatter A Record For COVID-19 Hospitalizations — Again
Falling just shy of the record 142,273 COVID-19 hospitalization cases on Jan. 14, Monday saw a staggering 141,385 cases in total, setting up the U.S. to hit a grim new record as soon as Tuesday.
Red Cross Announces First-Ever Blood Crisis
The COVID-19 pandemic has put an unprecedented strain on blood supply in the U.S. by causing blood drive cancellations and issues with staffing, according to the Red Cross. New blood donors plummeted by 34 percent last year.
U.S. Strays Further From Climate Goals
Thanks to a 6.2 percent jump in greenhouse gas emissions in 2021 compared to last year, Biden’s plans to slash carbon pollution 50 percent by the end of decade has gotten even more challenging to realize.
Maya Angelou To Become First Black Woman On Quarter
The U.S. Mint announced on Monday that the agency has started rolling out new quarters featuring the famed late poet as part of its American Women Quarters program. Here’s what it looks like:
(U.S. Mint)
First Pig Heart Into Human Transplant
Doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center reached a huge medical milestone last week by transplanting a pig heart into a human patient, who survived the procedure and is breathing on his own.
Drink Your Pee, Anti-Vax Leader Tells Followers
Christopher Key, an outspoken opponent of the COVID-19 vaccine, recommended on Telegram what he called “urine therapy” instead of the shot because, he claimed, “God’s given us everything we need.”
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) refused to back down on his remarks calling the 2020 presidential election “fair” after former President Trump accused him of being “woke” for daring to defy his election fraud falsehoods.
Longtime Rudy Giuliani ally Bernie Kerik plans to show up for a deposition in front of the Jan. 6 select committee this week. But he might not answer every question that is asked of him.
Attorneys for former President Trump were forced to explain at a Monday court hearing why their client’s actions on Jan. 6 did not meet the standard for a conspiracy.
And Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL), oddly, was forced to explain his own actions on that day.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) on Monday came to Sen. Mike Rounds’ (R-SD) defense after former President Trump attacked the GOP senator for calling the 2020 presidential election “fair” during an interview.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in an interview with right-wing outlet Breitbart News doubled down on his threat to remove Democrats from their committee assignments if he becomes House speaker following the midterm elections.
McCarthy has been boosting that plan and others that might appeal to his conference’s right-most members as he seeks to win Freedom Caucus support for his speakership.
TPM Reader GE‘s emails started with a headline “pandemic of the working class” and then referenced a tweet that referenced the same argument …
I am a 69 year old physician who my hospital “aged” me out of in-patient care at beginning of pandemic. I still have frightening outpatient exposures, and I saw/see my younger colleagues recover after they get sick, despite vaccines. I also have 4 children, 2 of whom are in-classroom teachers, and grandchildren attending in-person classes. There is a huge element of unfairness in the workforce today, and I foresee a future bitterness that could explode.
I had a back and forth with GE over this to try to frame the point. What we’re describing here isn’t ‘working class’ precisely, a phrase usually defined in occupational and educational terms while also signifying a set of cultural values. After all, a physician is definitionally not ‘working class’. What we’re describing here is a stark divide between people who can relocate their work and in most cases work from home and those who – in the nature of the work – cannot. In that sense, physicians and really all health care workers, educators and various caregiving and mission-driven jobs fall on the ‘in person’ side of this divide – even though some are highly educated and highly paid. However you define it or what labels you use it is a stark divide in terms of how people have experienced the pandemic, what life or political lessons they’ve drawn from it and how those views impact the future.
Former President Trump on Monday blasted out a tirade aimed at Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) after the GOP senator said during an interview that the 2020 presidential election was “fair” and that Trump’s bogus claims of election fraud are, indeed, false.
